Up In The Air
by raynperdition
Summary: Tony needs a little help with a certain 'speed bump', and Loki's got just the hands for the job. Of course, it nearly sends both of them into cardiac arrest. Part of the Supernova series.


A/N:** The title of is Up In the Air by 30 Seconds to Mars. **

**Warning: Bad words. Because I swear like a sailor. ;)**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own neither Stark, nor Loki. Nor RDJ, nor Tom Hiddleston. Nor do I own Marvel or any of it's affiliates. All I really own are the pieced together words (some of which also happen to be Marvel's, god damn it.). **

**So, yeah, enjoy ;)**

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Loki's phone was buzzing. Anthony was emblazoned on the screen. He frowned, the man was just downstairs. Lazy-ass engineers these days. He shook his head and answered. "Yes, love?" The overt patience and tolerance was not hidden in his voice.

Anthony chuckled. "Could you come downstairs for a minute?" He sounded in pain. Loki jumped off the couch and trotted downstairs.

The door to Stark's lab opened in front of him, glass sliding back to reveal Anthony sitting on a chair with some wires hooked up to him. Loki gulped. "If you've hurt yourself again, I'll kill you." He muttered, trying to tease and failing miserably. The worried line on his forehead was starting to give him a headache.

Stark sent him a beaming smile. "I'm fine. C'mere." He beckoned to Loki with one tan, scarred hand that Loki so adored holding. "I need your help with something. I um, hit a little speed bump." He pulled Loki close when he got within reach. Loki felt the man's warmth echoing throughout his whole body. The man got under his skin, reaching into the outermost parts of his physique and into the unknown nerves and veins and stretches of his mind. And Loki loved that, being so overcome with love that one person knew you better than you knew yourself, had you mapped out like an atlas, every possible destination poured over and memorized.

"With what?" He looked Anthony over, studying the placement of the wires and listening to the steady tempo of his heartbeat which came from the monitor beside them.

"The reactor. I just need someone with skinny hands to help me switch out this," He pointed to the arc reactor firmly seated in his chest. "With this." He held up a newer version, a more refined, sophisticated model. "There's an exposed wire under the reactor. It's contacting the socket wall and causing a bit of a shortage." He pulled out the reactor with a twist, and a tug. He handed Loki the old reactor, pointing to the table. "Just put that over there, that's irrelevant. Now, you just reach in, and gently lift the wire out."

Loki eyed the vacated hole in his boyfriend's chest with trepidation. This looked like an accident waiting to happen. What if he pulled out the wrong thing, or touched something, or pushed something. He was about to start hyperventilating just thinking about it. He shook his head, "Anthony, I don't know if I can do this. What if I...mess something up or-or-or something." He wrung his hands nervously, debating between doing this crazy request, or just walking away and calling a nurse to help his boyfriend.

"No, no, it'll be fine. Just don't let it touch the socket wall." He smiled reassuringly.

Loki hesitated. Then reached towards the socket, then pulled back. "I-I don't know. Are you sure?" He grimaced, looking down at the hole in Anthony's chest.

"Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine. Just gently lift out the wire. It's okay, Loki." He smiled running a thumb across Loki's jaw.

Loki hissed in a breath, suddenly unsure how to breathe or think or if he should do this or not. "Okay." He gently eased his fingers into the arc reactor's resting place, feeling slime surround his fingers. "Ew. Oh my gods. What is that?" The horror and uncertainty in his voice was almost embarrassing.

Stark snickered, and Loki could feel it reverberate around his long fingers. It almost made him shiver to realize how his hand was actually _inside_ Anthony's chest cavity. A fluttery feeling came across the tips of his fingers as he eased in deeper. "That's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device. It's not from me." He grinned uneasily at Loki.

"Ugh, Stark, I can feel your heart beating." He gulped, squeezing his eyes shut. The smell from that stuff was almost nauseating. "That slime smells." He grimaced.

Anthony breathed out. "Yeah, it does." He smirked at Loki, who was currently about to go into cardiac arrest. "Okay, love, it's the copper wire. You should-" He groaned when Loki's fingers reached the end of the socket. "Be there."

Loki nodded, feeling a small wire graze his fingers.

"Okay, you got it? You got it, love?" He sounded strained.

Loki nodded, "Yeah, yeah. I got it. Oh my god." He pulled it upwards gently.

"Okay, do not-" He flinched. "Ah!" A buzzer went off, startling Loki. "That's what I was talking about- not letting it touch the socket wall." He sent Loki a rather pained glance.

"I'm sorry, oh god, I'm sorry." He tensed, pulling it easily out of Anthony's chest.

"It's okay. Now when you pull it out-" Loki finished pulling it out, the whole thing letting loose of Anthony's chest. "Don't pull the magnet out."

The beeper went wild. "Oh shit, what happened." Loki's eyes were wide and the gooey wire was just dangling from his fingers. He felt clumsy and helpless.

"Okay, you just sent me into cardiac arrest. Don't put it back in!" He waved the wire away and Loki could see the veins in his neck start to stand out.

"Oh my god, I thought you said it'd be fine!" He placed the wire on the table behind him. "Now what?" The racing beeps beside him were scaring the shit out of him. His own heart was racing about the same speed.

"Now, take this, we gotta switch it out real quick." He handed Loki the new reactor.

Fuck. If Loki survived this, it'd be a miracle. "Anthony...oh fuck, okay." He bit his lip, gently guiding the new wire to the bottom of the socket.

"Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate." Anthony's voice sounded breathless and ghostly.

Gently, Loki plugged the new wire into the bottom of the socket.

"Owwww!" Stark's eyes snapped wide open and he grinned. "Now was that so hard?"

Loki was hyperventilating too much to respond, so he merely glared weakly. "Please, don't ever ask me to do that again." He gasped, trying to slow his heart rate down from cardiac-arrest-speeds. He wasn't sure his muscles would ever be the same after being so tense. Suffice to say, Loki could never be a doctor. He just didn't have the nerves for this shit.

"Thank you, love." He twisted the reactor back into place, grinning at a rather disheveled Loki Laufeyson.

Loki's palms were slick, and his jugular was jumping almost painfully in his throat. "I hate you." He sighed, gazing dolefully at his goo-covered hand. "Do you happen to have a sink somewhere?" He asked as his boyfriend unhooked himself from the various machines surrounding him.

"Mmmm. That way." He pointed towards the opposite end of the room. Loki saw a deceivingly small door.

He turned when the old arc reactor caught his eye. "What are you going to do with that now?" He pointed towards it with a gooey finger.

Anthony shrugged. "Destroy it. No reason to keep it now." He gazed at it for a second, then shook away the cloudiness in his eyes. Loki watched him silently, pondering a growing idea in his head. "Hungry? I could go for Thai food, tonight." He winked at Loki salaciously.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Sure." He glanced at the decommissioned arc reactor thoughtfully. Then went to the bathroom. "Just let me wash your inorganic, plasmic shit off my hand." He teased.

That arc reactor was not being destroyed, not if he had anything to say about it.

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A/N:** So, have I mentioned that I don't write well when I have an actual plot in mind? Well, here's proof. This is a one-shot for after Chapter 25 of Counting Stars. Yeah. I FUCKED WITH THE IRON MAN STORYLINE. Whoops. Oh well. Sue me (please, don't, I'm broke already.). Hahaha, poor Loki. **

**Reviewwww, please ;). **

**I LOVE YOU PEOPLE.**

**~xoxox, Rayn.**


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